


Expensive Chocolates

by Tsuukai



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-27
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-06 12:12:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1857624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsuukai/pseuds/Tsuukai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Heck, if you do manage it, I’ll bring you a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates and those big placards that say ‘You made it! Good job!’.”</p>
<p>Where Kagami Taiga is promising violent affections.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Despite the obvious shipping, I am so mean to them. Like, what is wrong with me?!

They sat, side by side, watching little ragamuffins play on the jungle gym a few meters away, unaware of the heavy set of shoulders the two teenagers held. Neither spoke, content to remain in the quiet hush of their own world, knees touching, arms barely brushing against each other. A soft breeze drafted its way around them, not felt by the two hunkering masses, though it did upset a few strands of deep red hair on one of the bench sitters. Baoding balls sounded not far from them as one child showed another the “cool sounding balls” his brother loaned him for the day, and silently watched as they dropped it into the sandbox in their haste to share. Curious whispers of mothers watching their children, tittering with small laughs as they made pleasantries, one eye on their acquaintances and the other like a hawk watching their young. Despite all the environmental noise, no other sound permeated their bubble.

The two-toned redhead broke the seeming peace between them with a drawn out sigh. A rough clearing of the throat followed, but it took a few more minutes to use words to explain his current mood. Or the reason he was there in the first place. “He said,” he started, a little softer than he intended, so repeated himself with a louder decibel than he felt he could afford the topic, “He said that he couldn’t make it this year as well.” Arms that had been laying on muscled thighs limply now moved so that he was holding onto his kneecaps.

“Aa.”

He continued: “Work caught up in America, and he doesn’t want me to stay another year alone.” He paused, rubbing his kneecaps with equal pressure, concentrating solely on the action and trying not to notice if his bench companion stiffened at the assumption no doubt he was forming in his head. “Not like I wasn’t fine without him around, God knows that,” he griped, his voice almost trying to pull a smile on the other teen’s lips, “but he said we could always return to Japan later. For vacation and stuff.”

“Oh?”

The monosyllable assurances that the dark skinned teenager was listening was giving Taiga an unpleasant feeling in his chest. It started off as a squeeze in his stomach, branched off in the vice claw grip to his heart, and slowly, like it was growing and sprouting, into branches up his neck. Trying to pass it off as a rising muscle pain after the impromptu street basketball match they had not moments ago, Taiga surged on with the two-week prepared speech. He had not meant to delay telling the other, but as the time went on, and summer hitting its peak, he knew he could not postpone the inevitable; his farewell.

“Schools start after summer there, and I have to do placement tests and things like that, so my dad’s kind of…making me come home early.”

“Yea?” this time, even though there was no added inflection to his question, the mere fact that he paused before replying made Taiga wonder if he was more affected by it than he put on.

“Yea.” Taiga chanced a glance at the other. “Aomine…I leave in two days.”

The announcement was what made the other finally move. Aomine let his neck turn to one side, watching him with half-mast eyes and a smirk on his mouth. “Huh…so you’ll be running away from me, huh?”

Taiga spluttered. “What?! Don’t be so full of yourself!” he wanted to stand up and tower over the blue haired teen, but he did not want to break the space they had created on this bench. Instead he turned his body to face Aomine, right knee bumping roughly against the other’s left knee. Aomine did not react to the action, eyes holding onto Taiga’s without blinking. “In fact, I should be saying ‘Don’t take long’, you aho!” he seethed, an action and emotion comfortable to him. “I’ll be over there, getting to the NBA faster than you can pack your bags. I won’t wait long, you hear?”

Aomine threw back his head and roared with laughter. Unbeknownst to them, the children in the small park jumped in surprise at the sound; the straggling mothers stared at them openly from the other side, mapping out escape contingencies if the teenagers turned out to be hostile. But with them, all they were thinking were each other. “You in the league? And before me? Don’t be mistaken.” Dark molten blues bore into his eyes as they narrowed with an unwritten promise. “Watch out, Kagami, or the mat will be pulled out from under you.”

He did not know if seeing Aomine this way was what had spurred him on; that things would be okay again, that it did not matter if the largest ocean spanned the distance between where they would be competing to get to the world’s stage with their brand of basketball; but it was enough to make Taiga stand up, brushing Aomine’s knee and arm in the process. He grinned down at the large male then turned his back on him, walking away.

“Sure, you say that, but you’re probably bad at flying. Will I even see you there?” Taiga teased, not facing the other. “Heck, if you do manage it, I’ll bring you a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates and those big placards that say ‘You made it! Good job!’.” He knew he was being mean to what all it stood for, but he just couldn’t bring himself to really say what he wanted to.

“I’ll hold you to that!”

Taiga faltered in his next step.

“I’ll hold you to that, so you better get me some fucking expensive chocolates, you hear, Bakagami!”

He brought a hand to his t-shirt, clenching through it, grinding his teeth together as he kept his smile on his face. “Yea; I’ll remember that, aho.” Taiga did not turn once to see Aomine’s expression, but he knew he’d see it again. Preferably after smashing the requested box of chocolates in his face.


	2. Effective Communication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brief peek at what happens after Taiga leaves. 
> 
> Daiki pretends that the distance between them is only as far as Seirin is and can deal without thinking too much about it. Taiga spends more time with the dictionary ever since Daiki started harping about his kanji, as annoying as that is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author begs for you to ignore inconsistencies in both character and (maybe) storyline. Currently stuck in a room with a (broken) air-con that is doing a very good job of ice-cubing me.

 

When Daiki runs upstairs to quickly grab his club gear before he is truly late for morning practice, a chime interrupts him. Frowning, thinking it is Satsuki reminding him (again) that she was already at the school meeting the coach, he flips open his phone to send a scathing text back only to halt at the name displayed on his screen. With nervous gestures, he selects the ‘open’ option and reads the (grammatically incorrect) message, a quirky smile forming on his lips.

< _Thank God Friday. Want to sleep in bed and hope to find some players tomorrow at street basketball. Lucky Ahomine being in a basketball club, you get to play every day! >< Don’t forget practice today!>_

Daiki wonders if the idiot was telling him to _go_ _for_ practice or _to_ practice; anything was possible. It was a wonder the returnee always called to speak to him or sent him short messages shorter than the ones he himself wrote. And that was saying something. Shaking his head, he texted a reply back, snapped his phone shut, pocketed and headed back downstairs. Almost at the door and greeting his mother farewell, Daiki cursed; he forgot his bag again.

 

***

 

< _Your grammar is ridiculous. And I am going for practice now, I’ll chat later. Don’t nap too long, lazy ass. **You** should practice more if you ever hope to beat me in our next one-on-one. >_

Taiga scowled at the _katakana_ laden message, thinking _hypocrite_ as he reached for his English-Japanese dictionary and flipping to the ‘ _Common Grammatical Errors_ ’ section, he scrutinised for his mistakes. His new phone was not fully functional yet, and getting the automated converters for his characters sometimes gave him words he does not even remember reading before, and technically, Aomine was the only one he sent lines of texts to on a daily basis. Even Kuroko did not badger him on his short texts, though he guesses that video calling was much easier to deal with. But for the life of him, Taiga could not gather the courage to click on the profile that read ‘AomineD’ with an image of the dark skinned male sizing up his basketball with his new Nike shoes.

< _Asshole. And I practice enough! Go be a good junior and actually listen to your elders. I’ve just come back from tuition, so I’m beat. Catch you later? >_

Taiga went over the text carefully this time, making sure that the automation was correct and there would be no fuddy-duddy exclamations on his Japanese by a person who _still_ wrote in _katakana_. It was already getting a little hard trying to switch back permanently to English now, what with his father too speaking to him in that language. Not even two weeks and he is already feeling nostalgic.

Sending the message, he waited for a few seconds, bated breath, but realised that he might not get a reply so soon if what Aomine did say was true. Placing his phone on the bedside table, Taiga went through the motions of preparing for a nap, setting an alarm in case of his propensity to oversleep. Glancing at the clock, he mentally reminded himself to cook dinner before he took to the streets so that they at least had food when his father and he returned home. The housekeeper had left when he arrived, and he was slightly despondent about having Mexican food for the third day in a row. He had seen the replenished pantry and fridge, so in his head he listed out the dishes he could make in a short span of time and still have enough for a proper workout before he was due home—his father was a stickler for obedience, and making it for curfew granted Taiga the international package on his phone to be paid off by the elder.

Just as he was closing his eyes for some much needed rest, his phone vibrated loudly. Reaching over in a heartbeat, he read the small message, bringing both a blush and scowl to his face.

< _Just go to sleep already. If you dream of me, maybe you’ll be able to catch me ^^. >_

 

***

 

Daiki paused outside the café, the red, white and blue sign so eye-catching, there was nothing else he could do besides to stop and stare. Satsuki was rambling about whatever she was fancying at the moment, unawares that he had stopped both—paying attention to her drivel and walking beside her. The American banner was flapping away merrily at the entrance of the establishment, and glancing inside as discreetly as he could, he chuckled at what he saw. One of the waitresses was tissue-marketing the store’s brand, cheerfully getting into passers-by’s faces and forcing the packets into their hands. She was probably his age, with long brown hair tied into pigtails and flouncing her frilly ensemble unashamedly in public, and as a gap in street traffic appeared, she glanced over her shoulder at him, cheeks flushed more than the afternoon’s heat was to be blamed for.

Deciding that it was worth it, Daiki smirked at her. Successfully caught, she simpered closer and asked in an overly fake cute voice, “How may I help you, master?”

“Can I take your picture?” he asked, the cogs in his head turning so smoothly that he completely missed the squeal the waitress let out.

 

***

 

He snapped the lid with a snarl before throwing the metal over his shoulder to clatter behind him, hearing it tumble down without hindrance. He moved aside the cardboard boxes, stacked old folders into their proper constraints and collected tools into the toolbox with neigh a word as he moved slowly through the depressing packed boxes to replace the items in their rightful niches, another reminder of his father rooting himself in the USA and not having any plans to move to Japan. It made him more angry than sad, but it was one emotion he refused to show his father in fear of getting that winter break ticket revoked by the elder Kagami in due punishment for ‘acting out’, just like his father accused him of being when the tutor informed him of skipping the previous day’s class.

Taiga was annoyed about the studies his father was forcing onto him; in Japan, the level of studying was far greater and he had struggled every day to pass weekly tests, the midterms and then the finals. When his teacher had grandly congratulated him for moving to the next grade, the class had thrown him a party, surprising him, and even the basketball club went out for a day’s respite, bunking practices for the day (Aida- _Kantoku_ made up for it the next day, however, with _triple_ the work, so it did not matter in the end). Here, however, just made Taiga aggravated that instead of struggling with writing properly constructed sentences, he would be writing in English, and doing the basic math he had finally drilled into his head _all over again_. He could do without the repetition.

So it came with a blessing, the tone that signalled a new message, efficaciously distracting him from the depressing spiralling of thoughts, that Taiga looked at the screen with excitement, noting the attachment sign near Aomine’s name.

<Saw this and wondered…>

Taiga scrolled down, intrigued.

<If you dressed up like this as well…???>

Scrolling down some more, a picture took up the rest of the screen, each pixelated piece meshed together to show a teenage girl with long pigtails at the side of her head, bending down low enough that a hint of a cleavage could be made out, as she posed, one hand with the victory sign while the other held the two-dimensional proudly waving US flag that was out in front of a store whose name did not fit into the frame of the picture. Taiga took in the black and white outfit with frills edging it, the long black socks encasing slender legs and making them look never-ending, a white frilled headpiece, and the fully glossed pouting lips, promptly shuddering.

Then reread what the other wrote.

“…wondered…if you dressed up…” Taiga paused. The let out a loud angry snarl, embarrassed. Fingers jamming onto the phone’s keypad, Taiga responded none too nicely.

 

***

 

Daiki roared with laughter in the middle of crossing the street, Satsuki giving him a worrisome glance as he stopped to catch his breath. The strawberry-blond haired girl threw apologising bows and glances at the other pedestrians, hitching her nimble fingers into her childhood friend’s t-shirt, trying to drag him the rest of the way across the street, asking, “Are you okay, Dai-chan?”

Daiki tried to breath unsuccessfully, holding his sides with both hands, managing to get out a few words which she pieced together as such: “So awesome, that returnee.”

In the text message, Kagami had written, < _The only one I can imagine cross-dressed like that is **me** , AHO._>

So as to not lose out on the biggest joke ever, Daiki immediately replied back, ignoring the persistent girl wondering about her sanity before she huffed, screamed out ‘ _Dai-chan, you idiot! See if I care!’_ , storming on her way home. Daiki hardly cared at the moment as he pressed ‘send’. Grinning, he widened his strides to catch up to Satsuki, itching to share what the redhead replied with.

“Oi, Satsuki! You’ll forgive me when you hear about this!” he called out, still not caring that he was being a nuisance to society.

 

***

 

< _You’re right!!! I too can only imagine Bakagami cross-dressing as a maid. Send me a voice message saying:_ I missed you, Master Daiki. Please come over quickly! d(-_^) <(￣︶￣)>>

Taiga blinked at the rare emoticons Aomine used, first seeing them rather than the text he replied with. Then, trying to shrug off the eeriness, he read the line. And then again. Making sure that he understood the context (and that in the few seconds it took since he sent his last message) and not because it seemed like he forgot how to read Japanese, Taiga read his own text that Aomine replied to.

And swore to all those who would listen. “Sweet Mother of—!! Fucking _kana_!!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In reality, if someone asks to take a picture of a maid in a maid café, they would be politely rejected, tourist or not, as it is against the store’s policy. Aomine should not have been able to get that picture so casually without actually paying a fee and ordering something from the café, but…artistic licence and all that (AND, it’s Aomine Daiki, people. I’d break any and all laws for him XD.)  
>  
> 
> Kana is the two Japanese writing systems, hiragana and katakana, wherein each character (kana) is typed one after the other in order, and a string of kana is automatically converted to the kanji character when using a computer/phone. Sometimes (more like I had this issue every time), if you take too long while typing and not realise that the word changes, you write utter rubbish. Otherwise—on the phone—there’s a drop down menu to change the kanji word (which I only learnt about after I stopped needing to write Japanese *sob*).
> 
>  
> 
> Reviews and comments are appreciated, as always :)


	3. Breaking Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even with the distance between them, they are able to communicate better than they ever have; Taiga can read what makes Daiki tick, and Daiki goes above and beyond what he would usually do for a frenemy. 
> 
> Or is that just the calm before the storm?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, this was shorter than I planned. Let's just be glad there's an update? OTL

 

The first thing he did when he saw the link was draw back in fear. Knowing Aomine’s propensity to make fun of him—unduly so—Taiga hesitated on clicking it. He mulled on the chances of it being perverse, like most of his hobbies off the basketball court, then deciding that he should be old enough not to be embarrassed about (potential) pornography, he clicked the link and sat back into his chair.

The tiny URL opened up in his browser from the email, loading quickly into a blue background and a cute little green T-Rex listening to an iPod attached to large headphones, though the focus of the webpage was the white-outlined black box that read “ _Kana Invaders_ ” under which had two buttons: Hiragana and Katakana, in the same order. Taiga stared for a whole minute, wondering.

Hesitating, he hovered over the first button, as if waiting for the innocent screen to explode onto him with half nude pictures of Hori-whathaveyou’s Mai-chan, or whatever is now passing off as Aomine’s fancy in the three-dimensional turned two-dimensional world. Suddenly irritated at the thought (he felt Aomine was corrupting him by just thinking about the other’s depraved hidden agendas), he glowered at the screen. The black screen, now changed to ‘ _Select the starting level_ ’, filled with little TV things each with a _kana_ starting from the beginning with ‘A’, then ‘Ka’ and it went on. Taiga clicked the little TV as instructed. A loading screen came on and suddenly…

Level 1 started with a spaceship moving slowly at the bottom and then those same TV screens from what he thinks now is a menu, drop down from the top of the black box. Eyes wide, Taiga presses the spacebar. On the first floating TV screen—which is starting to look more and more like a miniature spaceship with a billboard—the English letter ‘e’ popped up. He kept hitting his spacebar, thinking he was killing (?) the floating objects but received a sound that obviously meant _no, you fucker; keep trying._ Feeling more and more like an idiot, Taiga pressed the ‘e’ key on his keyboard. The spaceship exploded in a shower of blue pixelated squares.

Taiga froze.

 ***

 

_Two hours ago in Japan…_

Daiki closed the door softly despite wanting to bang it shut in frustration just to block out his mother’s nagging reprimand of staying out late, not playing basketball, but demanding to use the bath water first, keeping his work-exhausted father waiting patiently for his own bath. Daiki had shrugged and said the worst thing his nerved-fraying mother never wanted to hear: “Not my problem.”

So she made it his problem by sending his father first, who as per usual, took longer than his wife ever did when she had more spare time on her hands, and an hour later, Daiki grudgingly had to soak first, clean the tub and _then_ take his lacklustre shower. It sucked, but that was his punishment.

He hated bath-duty.

He dropped his towel on the swivel chair, flopping onto the seat and resting his aching legs on his mattress, sighing at large towards his ceiling as he stared vacantly at it. He supposed he could have told his mother the truth—that he was not playing basketball at the club today particularly because he had stayed back to meet his homeroom teacher who said it was high time he started submitting work that comprised of kanji rather than all the katakana he had been using. Growling at the thought, Daiki felt he should be able to express himself in any form of the language even in University since all he really will be doing is playing basketball in the end; that had never changed.

Arguing with his homeroom teacher, though…that turned out to be a big mistake, because the fucker went to the coach and the coach looked at him as if he was more than the idiot he thought he was. And then to add fuel to fire, the idiot Wakamatsu had guffawed at him and delegated him to turn up for kanji lessons since he hated coming for club practices. The look in Satsuki’s eyes was another story that he did not want to revisit.

Thinking so much about kanji, he suddenly remembered Kagami.

Blindly reaching for his phone left on his table, he brings it to his face. There are no missed messages or call, and checking his email proves to be useless as well. The Kanji in the advertisement on the top bar of his email made Daiki want to chuck the device far from him, but then he paused, arm raised over his head, thinking.

Chuckling, he brought his phone back down to search for a few sites, and when finding it, he sent the link to Kagami. Closing his phone, smiling so wide, Daiki prepared to sleep. Tomorrow was another long day as well.

 ***

 

Taiga hesitated to send the message he typed up, carefully, not because he was worried about his grammar or his words or anything related to the Japanese language—unfortunately to his pride, ever since Aomine had been sending him random links to games and worksheets to help in his kanji, he had been getting better at it, loathe as he was to admit it—but because of what the contents were _about_.

Thinking it was best to get it over with the disappointment so that they could pretend everything else was fine, Taiga pushed the button and watched the little icon showing that the message was being sent. A large green tick across the closed envelope confirmed his decision leaving Taiga to wait for a reply.

Said reply came so fast, he was surprised the phone did not suffer from whiplash.

< _What do you mean you aren’t coming?? You said your ticket was booked ages ago! Were you lying????? >_

If the questions were not enough, the unnecessarily added punctuation gave it away. Taiga’s face crumpled even more at the thought of Aomine being upset with him; it was the first promise he broke after all. It was the only promise that mattered.

“I…didn’t…lie…about…booking…the ticket,” he spoke under his breath as he typed a response. “My father…decided to…take me…to visit my…grandparents. They don’t…stay…remotely…even close to…Tokyo.” Adding a few more lines, he sent the message quickly so as to not miss Aomine completely.

< _Why don’t those old people stay here?! This is ridiculous. You said you’d be able to come for vacation and stuff… >_

As disappointed as Aomine was, Taiga was feeling worse off. He even had a verbal shouting match with his father, which he has learnt never to do, and was thusly reprimanded accordingly: no basketball until school starts. Aggravated and irritated with the lack of things to do, he tried to occupy himself with his studies and his kanji studies.

The ding from the phone pushed that determination off the desk and into the wastebasket. Taiga pouted to himself at these thoughts, picking up the phone, prepared for more disappointment. Until, of course, he read the reply.

< _And? So where do they stay?? If you can’t make it, at least tell me where_ I _have to be. >_

Taiga’s heart did a double take, and resumed beating with a force he was uncomfortable with. Squirming in his chair, he replied, slowly and carefully. Part of him wondered why he was replying back with directions to his grandparents’ place, and another part of him felt silly for anticipating meeting the other.

A very tiny part of him really wanted to see the boy now.

But his fingers stopped immediately from asking if they could video chat, and instead waited for Aomine’s response.

< _Okay, got it. Man, that’s far!! You’re lucky that we’re still on summer break otherwise it will be impossible to meet up. Too bad you won’t be there for my birthday though. And before you waste my time, it’s at the end of August. We’re going to the beach to get in one last taste of freedom before we cram up for exams next year. >_

Taiga’s eyebrows rose. “Oh?” Then checked the calendar to make sure he jotted down the date, before realising something else.

Grinning largely, he replied for possibly the last time today, since it was night in Tokyo.

 

***

< _I know, tell me about it. I’m not even close to them. Saw them maybe once before leaving to the US years ago, and never heard from them since. Dad thinks he should at least visit once before something happens to them. :/_ [Receiving text] _>_

The [Receiving text] glared at him from the middle of the message, and pissed that he had moved off his bed, crawled onto the floor to find it in a heap of his dirty clothes, he wanted to call and demand that the redhead stop making him more tired than he already was. And he was busy, for _Kami-sama’_ s sake, thinking and planning how much money he would need to travel all the way to Kyūshū because the dumbass had relatives so far down from civilization.

Annoyed now, he waited for a long time, staring at the screen to magically manifest the rest of the text, but it was a no-show.

Sighing, he dragged himself up, dropped the phone on his side table and tumbled face-first into his bed. He could read the message in the morning when it was, hopefully, received fully.

“Stupid distance,” he mumbled into his pillow, almost getting spittle on it. He rubbed his face into the softness, smothering himself at the weird feelings building up in his chest. It has been a while, but he recognised it almost immediately as nervousness. But of what, he did not know.

Daiki turned to lay on his cheek, eyeing the phone sitting uninterrupted amongst various papers and wrappers—and that might have been balled up tests from first term that his mother need not see—and almost lurched up to grab the blue device when the light lit up.

He snapped open the phone, holding his breath, and pressed for the message.

< _And well what do you know?! It’s my birthday on the 2 nd! Think you can stay for a couple of days if you have time?>_

 

 

 **Author’s Notes:** The game Kagami plays? Yea, it exists (<http://learnjapanesepod.com/kana-invaders/>) or here (<http://www.valiantls.com/games-for-learning-japanese.html>). And I was bad at it, only because it was a _game_ and treating it like a game, I failed most of my _kana_ tests. My teacher hated me; thought I was just being difficult. Thank God it’s like millennia away.

And does anyone else hate that “[Receiving text]” bullshit? Received one today and was majorly annoyed that my boss requested for more work to be done before I left. There’s no concept of ‘leaving on time’ anymore!!


	4. Losing Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daiki thinks he should use the map kindly old people give him next time, no matter what Kagami tells him.
> 
> Taiga wonders how teenagers sneak their friends in late at night and despairs that he has no clue how.

 

Daiki remembers the peaceful countryside atmosphere like this one, with its pleasant songbirds twittering from tree branch to tree branch and maybe to an odd telephone wire there, and some flies that perpetually seemed to be following someone or the other, and even those hornets (he shuddered at the memory), and the smell of freshness galore. He also remembers not being lost.

Glancing down at his phone, eyeing the dismal signal strength, he wonders what possessed him to make the trip so far out to Kyūshū when he virtually did not benefit from it. He blames his bored life, and knows that maybe it was to really end things between the idiot redheaded returnee and him.

The twinge in his chest spoke otherwise; he had been ignoring said muscle spasms until school starts and then he would complain to Harasawa and get the slimy man to fix an appointment with a heart specialist or something.

Daiki does not know how to continue living if he does not deny the obvious, so he raised his head up to search for a foothold to boost him up and wave the phone around for some radio waves—like he sees in dramas that his mother watches. He spies at some distance the burdock piling edging the roadside and jogs up to it. He pants, feeling winded, before realising that the road was sloping higher up and he really wished Kagami did not live somewhere up there. Or that the idiot would somehow come down to get him. Preferably now, while he was still young and supple, not dried and burnt to a crisp.

He wonders what he is doing even more when he finally tethers precariously on his toes, phone clutched high in the air, peering at it through narrowed eyes. The sun was extremely bright, just as his mother’s surprised face when he had said he was leaving the previous night to Kyūshū. Daiki figured that the only reason she dished out the money for his travel was because it had been ages since he offered to go anywhere on his own without Satsuki dragging him and even told the elderly woman about it.

Now he wishes he did not.

She is bound to ask how his trip was. And he hated lying, but was considering practising a story that would not get him laughed at.

But first, he needs to get to Kagami; he will kill that fucking idiot if he got the place wrong.

 

* * *

 

Taiga tried to drown out the mindless chatter with his grandparents by listening out for the sound of the doorbell all the way at the back of the house in the open garden. The place was huge and ancient, and he would be surprised if anyone even knew they had guests. Which brought Taiga to his current problem: hiding Aomine.

In jest of his excitement, he had offered his place to Aomine without considering asking his family first, and subsequently, _forgot about it_.

Now, on the dread day before his birthday, he tries to think of ways and means to get the dark skinned boy into the house someway without being seen. Taiga feels like he was stowing away his girlfriend, which is ridiculous because it was Aomine, but at the same time, he wanted to hide the other teen away from prying eyes and keep Aomine’s attention fixed solely on him. The weeks of sending texts and brief emails about what they were doing and how they were being compulsively led into things they did not want to do, had crafted a bond between the teenagers that Taiga could not explain.

He had not even told Kuroko he was coming to Japan until he reached and remembered he had missed the basketball club. Stunned at his own omission, Taiga had guiltily taken all the lecturing Aida-kantoku and Hyuuga-senpai ended up giving him, with the mild ‘Maa maa’ from Kiyoshi-senpai from behind the two raging demons. A blank look with ‘ _Kagami-kun’s cruel to have forgotten us already_ ’ stopped Taiga from telling them that Aomine was dropping by to see him.

He would not live the presumed disappointment and horror he was sure to see in their eyes.

But, Taiga frowned looking at his wrist watch forced on him earlier by his father, Aomine sure was late. He had texted him two hours ago that he had arrived at the bus station heading to him place, and had yet to arrive despite it only being a 45 bus ride.

“That foo better not have gotten lost on foot,” he muttered.

His grandmother looked up. “What was that, Tai-chan?” she asked innocently. He cringed, a watery smile on his face.

“Nothing, nothing…obaa-chan.”

 

* * *

 

“Ah, young kids these days,” one old man said to another, shaking as he tried to stand straight next to his friend or neighbour or whoever the other old man was.

When Daiki had first spotted them, they were just a spec on the slope, ambling down at the speed of a snail. Twenty minutes later and one harsh sneeze that displaced the dentures of one (Daiki could not tell which was which, they both looked the same: old and decrepit—and whoever it was, disturbingly dusted off the dentures and popped them back in, complaining about the glue), they stayed to talk.

To each other. _About_ him.

Furious with himself for even caring about the old men, he ignored the comical looks he was getting as he tried to reach higher ground close enough to the bus stop to scram if he was in the wrong place.

The tree looked real good about now.

“He looks to be from the city,” another said. “Wonder what’s he climbing that old thing for? Can’t he tell the wood’s too brittle for him to climb onto?”

“Ah, I think he can tell. See how he’s coming back?”

“Aa, you’re right, you’re right,” the first one said, tapping his cane in appreciation. “So not all city boys are foolish. Where do you think this one is from?”

“Saaa, who knows? They all look the same to me!” the other declared, smacking his teeth together. Daiki, disgruntled, thought he might have been the one displacing his dentures.

“Are you blind?” the first one asked, looking at his friend. A creaking hand waved at Daiki, as if he was behind a glass display at a museum they were visiting. “He’s as black as that shit you killed the plants with this cycle.”

Daiki jerked his head back, appalled.

The second one whined, “You’re never letting that go, are you Hama-chan?” sighing gravely, he implored, “How was I to know that grandson of mine mixed the wrong shit together?”

Thoroughly against being indirectly treated like the shit they were talking about, Daiki moped back to the bus stand, forgoing what was left of his damaged pride to call Kagami and complain.

The call was picked up almost immediately.

“Oh, was just about to call you,” Kagami said, his voice sounding like a breath of fresh air. Well, Daiki thought, _anything would sound like fresh air after_ that _._ “Where are you?”

“Don’t give me that, you little shit,” he groused, then dramatically shook himself for using the word, still listening to Kagami as the other growled.

“Can’t help it if a pure Japanese person like you can’t read directions.”

“Hey now! Maybe it’s the returnee’s kanji problems, huh?!”

“Fuck you! You know that’s not an issue anymore, you fucking twat!”

Before Daiki could cuss him out more, Kagami groaned out wordlessly. Daiki could almost imagine the teen pulling a hand roughly through red hair as he did so. The image made him chuckle softly to himself.

“Listen,” Kagami sounded diplomatically, “Just tell me where you are.”

Daiki did. Kagami clicked his tongue, shuffled about on the other side of the line before he said, “You know, it’ll be faster if we meet up somewhere else before I bring you back home.”

Again, before Daiki could retort that he did not want to get lost again because of Kagami’s worthless directions, Kagami mumbled out, “You should have noticed that you crossed Kitakyūshū some stations back,” Daiki agreed because it was hard to miss the vibrantly decorated town at this time of year, “They have some _matsuri_ going on that we could, I don’t know, visit?”

Kagami sounded breathy, as though he was not sure how Daiki would take the idea, especially since they were two guys going out to a festival of all places. Instead, Daiki thought hard on the festival, knowing he read the name on one of the loose leaflets at the bus station. “The Hyakuman something or the other festival?”

A deep intake of breath. “Yea, that one. You saw it?” His tone was light, but Daiki knew better.

“Okay, I’ll meet you at Kokura station, that way we won’t miss each other.”

Kagami laughed. “That’s a reasonable suggestion for someone who got lost, Ahomine.”

“Shut up, you’re noisy!” He snapped, and hesitated to cut the call in anger. Peeved, he mumbled out, “See you in a bit.”

“Yea, in a bit,” Kagami echoed. Then they each proceeded to wait for the line to disconnect. “Shut it, fool. I’m not waiting forever.”

“Keep your trap shut. I’ll cut it when I want to.”

“Well?!”

Daiki growled out a ‘ _fine, suit yourself!’_ and pocketed the phone. He heard chuckling behind him and he strained himself not to turn.

“So cute, Hama-chan,” a familiar voice declared.

“Haha, you’re right, Fumi-chan. We used to be like that, ne?”

Daiki covered his face in shame; _was that what we sound like? A pair of fucking homos?!_ He just could not wait for the bus to arrive sooner.

 

* * *

 

**Author’s Note:**

Wasshoi Hyakuman Natsumatsuri (“Wasshoi One Million Summer Festival”) which coincidentally takes place on Kagami’s birthday this year XD (Yay!)

Besides that—I forgot to put this up!!!!! D:

Which means you will get another update pretty soon, unlike what I had originally planned…

Thank God for AoKaga Month then. (¤_¤ )


	5. A Red-Letter, Blue-Ribbon Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daiki needs a doctor. Taiga insists he isn’t a _bocchama._  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It felt rushed to me, but maybe it’s not? Not too sure. (And I apologise for posting this sooo late; the internet was down since D:)
> 
> And I don't know if this counts as fluff. Does it?!?! ~~Someone educate me~~ OTL

He felt like an idiot, standing there, not budging against wave after wave of people pouring out the train as Kokura station, not knowing which side to look out for the towering redhead to appear from. He was already being stared at because of his looks, and maybe his glower as well, he is not sure—but Daiki was itching all over to just run out of the station and be done with the day. He has never stayed in one place so long if he was not sleeping, that too for waiting on somebody. And he just could not wrap his mind over the fact that he was doing all this for Kagami.

It might have been another twenty minutes before he recognised the stock of red on dark hair, thick split eyebrows and the firm downward scowl of Kagami, glancing from one side to the other, obviously looking for him. He made his move then, lifting his shoulders off the wall he was leaning against, parting smoothly through the throngs of people, and thusly catching Kagami’s eyes. An instant quirky smile crept onto the lightly tanned male’s face, and they both met somewhere in the middle of the platform.

“Idiot, who told you to wait _inside_ the station?” were the first words out of the redhead’s mouth. Daiki growled. “You’re lucky I even thought of checking inside instead of calling to see if you got lost again.”

“Hey!” Daiki snapped back, forgotten words of greeting hovering in his head, deciding anything sappy could take a hike as this screenplay was more familiar. He could not help the grin eating his face up, matched only by the other teen. “You’re an ass. C’mon, let’s go before we completely miss this festival.”

“What are you talking about?” Kagami griped, glaring over his shoulder as he led the way out. “We’ll be lucky to catch the fireworks.”

Daiki frowned when a subtle ache filled his chest on hearing those words, wondering why he would be sad to be late to this festival. It had not been part of the original plans, and granted even if Satsuki had forced him to one of these he would probably only indulge her so that she would stop whining. Kagami suggesting it had been startling, if not out of character of him, more so the fact that Daiki _agreed_ …

He suddenly did not want to waste this time together, so he surged forward and nudged the redhead to move faster.

 

* * *

 

Taiga was dumbfounded when Aomine literally dragged him to the festival even though it was him that was leading them. The second the crowd thickened (more coming out than going in), Taiga eased up only to be grabbed by the elbow and manoeuvred further to the sides of the lower temple grounds. They passed by the large red _torii_ gates leading to the shrine proper, a long row of them strung and lit by maybe a thousand lanterns. There were gaggles of people, laughing, talking, pushing, but there was one common feature on all their faces: joy.

And Taiga felt part of that, the joy springing forth from some unknown source inside him, bubbling and filling his being even if he was manhandled by Aomine. The other teenager was looking for something, walking past the closed shacks, many being sold out, others because the fireworks were starting up again and people were mainly moving towards the side to view the fireworks. Aomine followed too, flittering from one open space to another, clearly looking for a place that he was comfortable standing with Taiga, a duffle slug across his chest seeming to be uncomfortable.

This side of Aomine made any thought process slow down to a minimum. Taiga just could not guess why the other was going through so much trouble with him, even though most of the time they were at odds with each other. It made Taiga strangely happy and guilty, the mixture so peculiar; he dumbly followed until they stopped by a large tree spreading its branches across the narrow river edge. There were some children playing around the trunk, but Aomine ignored them and beckoned him over with a look so daring, Taiga was suddenly excited.

“Think you can climb up, fatso?”

Taiga scoffed. “You’re on!” and the two did not care for being stared at, just grappling the well-worn trunk of the cherry blossom tree, for that was the only species he could recognise without their blossoms too. When they managed to perch on the first strong crotch of the tree, Aomine grinned at him, bright, free and easy.

Taiga does not remember anything about the fireworks display unless someone asked how it looked reflected in wide, ingenuous blue eyes.

 

* * *

 

Kagami motioned for the shrine with a hand when the fireworks were over, not even uttering a word, but Daiki did not care, moving as fast as he could alongside the wide-shouldered male as he made his way to the red _torii_. The youth had already climbed up the first few steps before he turned to see what was taking Daiki so long to catch up.

And Daiki was stunned; the halo of dim yellow-orange light from the lanterns lit along the steps hung on red _torii_ gates surrounded Kagami, making him look ethereal. His mouth dried, tongue feeling too full for his mouth and so he gaped. The other teenager, unawares of his thoughts, looked down from above, mouth quirked to the side before a wide smile seemed to outshine the hanging lanterns.

“What is it?” he was asked, but Daiki could not form any words. “Aomine…?”

Daiki snapped his gaze away, like he would burn his retinas out if he stared much longer. “Sorry, I forgot what I was going to say,” he said instead, unsteadily climbing up the steps to continue with Kagami, but he shook enough to get a firm grip around his arm to steady him again. Kagami had that furrow on his brow and his mouth was slowly losing the smile that was adversely affecting his heart. _Seriously, I’ll fucking die in Kyūshū before I even know what killed me_ , he thought, pulling his arm away slowly. He could feel Kagami’s eyes on him even as he stepped passed him to the top of the stairs, the night sky feeling closer than he has seen in a while.

“It’s…breath-taking,” Kagami whispered, suddenly sounding so small. Daiki could attest to that, standing side by side, looking high up at the vast sky sprinkled with tiny stars. “I’ve never seen a night sky like this.”

Daiki shrugged. “Seen a lot in my childhood.” He glanced at the happy face on the redhead, concerned about the thumping in his chest. _Am I out of shape? Is that it? But I have been practicing for a while now, so those stairs shouldn’t have—_ Another blinding grin sent toward him made all thought freeze in his head.

“Have you seen the Milky Way then?!” Kagami asked him, excited. “I thought I’d get to see it, but I don’t even know where I have to go to do so,” he sounded so disappointed that Daiki rushed to think of his childhood days and what his grandparents always told him.

“Eh, we can check the lunar calendar for a moonless night and then try,” he managed to pass out, embarrassed when Kagami turned all his attention to him again, lips parted slightly. Daiki watched those lips and the slim curve of his jaw meeting his cheeks and the slight widening of his deep red eyes, his own features trying to take in everything and not knowing why. It was getting difficult to string his words into sentences. He tried licking his lips to distract his thoughts but then Kagami’s eyes jumped down to his lips, and whatever he was going to say remained forgotten in his confused haze of thoughts.

“And?” Kagami’s voice sounded far away.

“…Nn?” he questioned, distant, blank. _Scratch that. I need a doctor. Maybe summer sickness? Is that even possible now?_

“We need a moonless night and then what?” Kagami asked of him.

Daiki snapped his gaze away, confused where his thoughts were going, thinking about how nice Kagami sounded in his soft-spoken disposition here on the temple grounds. It was different from what Daiki knows, the energy oozing out of this place, out of Kagami a soft, mellow, pleasant feeling that was making him tingle even without the fighting energy that he usually attributes to the other teenager.

“…I forgot.”

Kagami chuckled, ducking his head towards his chest but eyeing Daiki from the side. “You’re doing that a lot, you know?”

Daiki frowned. “I don’t even know why. C’mon,” he pointed at the bell. “Let’s pray for your future, considering if you have anything to make use of, that is.”

“Shut up!” Kagami snapped, but a smile still returned to his face, cheeks tinged with colour as they both made their way to the bell. _Forget the idiot_ ; Daiki was going to pray for his heart because he does not think he will last another couple of days. There was definitely something wrong with it.

 

* * *

 

At half-past four o’clock in the morning, Taiga shushed Aomine for the fifth time as they neared the old house gates, the dark skinned male’s eyes wide and curious and all sorts of disbelief.

“You fucking rich brat,” he was accused of, and Taiga just did not understand it. What part of having an old house made him rich? “You fucking…I can’t believe this! Give me back my bus money!!”

Taiga scowled at him. “You cheapskate! You wanted to come here!” and then realised his voice was too loud for the whisper he was trying to get Aomine to maintain as well. Crouching towards him, he asked, “What are you going on about?”

“What da ya mean?!” Aomine pointed and waved at the large stone wall separating what Taiga had pointed as his grandparents’ abode while they had crept closer to the door. “You’re a _bocchama_!”

“No I’m not!” Taiga snapped in a quiet hush. “My dad probably is, and I’ve never really come this side, so I’ve never—” he stopped, wondering why he was even bothering. “Forget that and get over here quickly. My grandparents may be old and asleep right now, but my dad might still be awake.” Then mumbling to himself, “That old man surely knows how to keep grudges.”

“What was that?” Aomine asked him from behind. “ _Waka-sama_ ,” he added, mockingly.

Taiga huffed, ignoring the other’s idiocy. “Nothing. If my dad catches us sneaking in, he might go apeshit on me.”

Aomine’s body stiffened. “Why? Doesn’t he know I’m coming?”

“Er…” Taiga scratched his cheek. “I kind of…you know…forgot to tell him.”

With a large pull on the back of his shirt, Aomine grabbed a fistful, staring at him upside down as Taiga landed on his ass. Staring up nervously at the furious gaze of Aomine, he chuckled weekly. “Sorry about that.”

Aomine sighed, closing his eyes and looking put upon. He even brought his hands to rest on his hips. Taiga had never seen that image before, so he gazes at him for a second longer than he needed, before cocking his head to the gates. “Yea, yea. If we get in shit, I’m blaming it on you,” he warned, not even bothering to pick him up. Taiga scowled after him, and soon the two were entering the house with as silent steps as they could.

Most of the lights were off in the house, only the porch light on to greet them. Taiga headed in that direction, not knowing any other entrances, figuring that no one would be up at this time unless they made noise. He checked the wooden door, jiggled it a bit to see if it was locked before he pulled to aside and walked in. he did not have any time to warn Aomine before the other male stepped in after him, walked into his back as he was mumbling “ _ojamashimasu_ ”. Then he too froze.

“O-obaa-chan,” Taiga stumbled on the greeting, eyes painfully wide as they rested on the petite bumbling form of his grandmother. The woman was kneeling on the step above the _genkan_ , smiling daintily. Taiga did not know if that was creepy or not because usually when he gets that smile from Aida- _kantoku_ , he has to pay dearly. “Um, what are you doing up so late?” _why are you even waiting out here in the dark?!_

Without him realising it, he was also instinctively covering Aomine’s whole body with his.

But his grandmother merely chuckled behind a small hand, eyes crinkled shut. “Ara, Tai-chan. It’s your birthday today, and I thought to wake up early to make you a cake, but you were already out.” Taiga cringed, something he is starting to do a lot lately with her around. “And I see you met with a friend, so nice!”

Mumbling and fumbling, Taiga gripped Aomine’s wrist in his hand, going cold and then hot, he does not know what to say to his grandmother. The relationship he and Aomine have are not really friends—they spend so much time making fun and ridiculing of each other—but otherwise, there was no term to stamp it with. ‘Frenemies’ had sounded apt months ago, but then while he was in America, Taiga found himself yearning to see the dark skinned male more and more, to hear his voice, to feel that heat flushing his system as he watched his play or argued with him. Being so far apart, Taiga was only given a taste of hit.

The distance was killing him slowly and he did not even know it.

Seeing Aomine this time was like a rock displaced on his back that had been weighing him down inexplicably. That weight had appeared and stayed, making him think it was only the resentment he had towards his father and the elder man’s selfishness in ruining his life, he felt. But the countless days of relearning his tenth year in English, still keeping up with kanji lessons, and then also trying not to feel the despairing hole of leaving behind close friends and teammates…that all disappeared when he saw the scowling teenager at the train station, blue eyes refusing to let his sight waver away from them. They grasped his attention and held it; Taiga feeling like the seemingly years of distance disappeared in a millisecond.

All this, he does not know if his grandmother would understand even if he tried to explain it.

“I’m Tai-chan’s grandmother. I’m so glad you could make it for his birthday. Were you classmates?” the old woman chatted with a stupidly blinking Aomine.

Then, surprised by the change in demeanour, Aomine chuckled lowly, a smile blooming on his face. “Tai-chan and I played basketball together. He’s a really good player, and even got me to love the game again, baa-chan.” Taiga blushed. “And yes, I came to see him since I don’t know when I’ll see him again after this.”

“Aww, isn’t that cute,” the woman gushed, small hands at her drooping cheeks, mouth pinched into a wide smile even though to Taiga it looked like it could hurt. “But you must be tired, coming back so late. Go on up to Tai-chan’s room,” she was telling him. “Tai-chan, take a futon upstairs for Daiki-chan.”

‘Daiki-chan’ blushed too, but he did not flounder and ask not to be called that, and Taiga realised it pleased his grandmother. As the old woman started fussing at them, pushing them here and there, telling them they should sleep as much as they can before day breaks, she was smiling as she said, “At least now Tai-chan can eat cake with someone he cares for.”

And that, caused another set of burning faces, both for very different reasons.

 

* * *

 

 

**Author’s Note:**

_Torii_ – the Japanese traditional gates that usually represent a Shinto shrine. The more gates there are, the more holy the place is apparently. (I forget if this temple had so many, so let’s pretend it does…)

 _Bocchama_ – Young son of royalty, etc.

 _Waka-sama_ – Young son of a lord specifically.

 _Ojamashimasu_ or _ojama shimasu_ – “Excuse me for disturbing you”, or even “I’m sorry I’ll be a pest” (and others along that line). Said when entering someone’s house as a greeting and to show humility.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was rubbish, wasn’t it? It felt rushed and repetitive.
> 
> Thought I managed to do the second prompt of AoKaga Month (previously “Cake”)—and then I noticed that the prompt changed!!!!! You don’t know how excited I was to see “Date Night/Birthday” because I didn’t have to change anything XD (So thank you, peeps/moderators/organisers/lovelies at AoKaga Month!!)
> 
>  
> 
> ~~(On a side note, did anyone figure out the title?~~ :D


	6. Thy Neighbour – Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Taiga’s refute from earlier is mentally thrown out for Daiki has other issues to deal with.

Taiga could not sleep even if he was bulldozed over and left to deal with eternity hanging over his head. His heart was one  _noisy fucking thing, just stop already_ , and repeatedly beating it into submission was proving futile. Every time he glanced over at his right side, it became louder, so he willed himself not to. As he was learning what a weak-minded person he was, Taiga’s eyeballs moved by themselves.

Aomine was as still as the dead. His chest, as though he did not require air, did not move to breathe. Slightly worried, he hitches his own breath as he levers himself onto his elbows, peering in the slightly brightening morning light, streaming from the shutters. Some of this light spread across the dark skin of Aomine, making his features contrast like a palette of browns or even— _like an assortment of different chocolate._ His eyes travelled across the smooth features, over the closed eyes and dark flush of eyelashes resting against skin submerged by Taiga’s shadow. Dark blue hair that was too short to come in the way of anything stuck up on the pillow Aomine had swiped from his futon, and Taiga’s fingers had an inexplicit desire to twirl a finger around a peeking lock.

Swallowing down his urge, Taiga continued to view this specimen that he has never really seen in this state before. A sleeping Aomine was probably the most relaxed the other would ever become, and that made a series of tingles travel up his arms into his chest. The shivers were unrelenting as Taiga looked from his slightly clear forehead—the boy was still frowning lightly—and travelled over the slender nose the other liked to look down from, the smooth narrow cheeks and the thin but surprisingly plump lips. Taiga pursed his own, never really thinking about it, and decided to push those thoughts out of his head as his left hand reached over his angled body to lightly tap the wrinkles on Aomine’s forehead.

Taiga huffed a smile, watching as they creases smoothened out for a second before coming back, and repeating the motion was infinitely funny, that is, until Aomine’s smooth _sotto voce_   “What are you doing?” caused Taiga to stumbled backward and slam his hand against the ledge of the bay window his room had.

“Um, er…” _Just what_ was _he doing?!_ Taiga blushed and retracted his body so that there was distance between the two, despite the room being just that size of small, and Aomine had yet to open his eyes and look at him. “Nothing?”

This time, one dark blue eye glanced at him, its brow arching sharply from the outer most corner, a skill Taiga was sure Aomine did not know he had, but he digresses. Mouth drying in his own confusion, he shrugs at the other. “You must be kidding me. I wasn’t asleep you know?”

“What? You were totally dead right there!”

“No, I wasn’t,” Aomine did not even bother raising his voice the way he raised himself to prop onto his elbows, frowning at Taiga. “I couldn’t sleep so I just…laid there.” He does an awkward two-shoulder shrug that looks a tad bit funny, but for the life of him, Taiga cannot laugh; his heart is doing the painful thudding of a _taiko_ drum, and if he was not careful, it might actually be loud enough for the other boy to hear.

“Oh?” he asked shakily. “um…then I’m sorry. I…” he turned his head away, wondering what to say since he himself had no idea what he was doing.

Aomine, seeming to come to his defence—which was weird—broke in with, “Never mind that. I want to eat this cake your grandmother’s making.”

Taiga scowled, turning to glare at him. “Are you an idiot?”

Aomine looked surprised. “Eh? Why?” He sat up now, on his futon, covers discarded at the side. “She said she was making some.”

Taiga wondered if anyone but him thought Aomine was an idiot. “Eh, Aomine…you did see my grandmother right? At the doorway?”

Aomine nodded, looking confused.

“Then, didn’t you notice…she’s blind?”

 

* * *

 

 

Daiki blinked. “Eh?”

“Eh?” Kagami echoed.

For a second, the two sat, the peaceful humming of birds outside and the light rays of the rising sun filling the room through the partially open shuttered bay window. Daiki took a moment to appreciate the background of the picture it created of a sleep-tousled redhead blinking owlishly at him, and if it was any other time, Daiki would have whipped out his phone and snapped a picture _to tease him later, yea, that_. So it was perfectly alright that he could sit there in the quiet space they had surrounding them and not think about what Kagami just said.

Before it became obvious that Daiki did not believe it.

“But she saw me!!” he cried first, fisting his borrowed shorts. “She looked right at me and said ‘you brought a friend?’! She did!!”

Kagami frowned. “Well, yea she did look in the general area you were, because I spoke. And she’s really very good at listening, despite being so old, and didn’t you notice there was only one light on?”

Daiki sputtered, “What has that got to do with anything?!” Standing fluently, he groused, “And…” His thoughts frizzled to nothing.

“Is it that difficult to believe she’s blind? If I’m not mistaken, I think it was because she never got her cataract treated.” Kagami shrugged like it was no big deal, and rose, yawning and stretching, and effectively derailing any forming thoughts in Daiki’s mind. A band of skin peeked out under the rising t-shirt the redhead wore, hard muscle stretched taut and just there for the seeing. Daiki had to gulp at the suddenly pooling spit, and wondered if he was drooling because he did not get enough sleep. _Yea, that’s all there is to it_.

“Come on, let’s get cleaned up. I’m surprised no one’s come to wake us up,” he said, leading the way out. Daiki followed, unsatisfied when the other moved, thinking it was the aftereffect of hearing about Kagami’s grandmother and maybe also not getting cake. “If obaa-chan was already awake, though, she might have gotten someone to make that cake you so want to eat,” the teasing tone did not escape him and he showed that by kicking Kagami lightly.

“Idiot.”

Soon, they found themselves walking downstairs, and Kagami checked where the rest of the family was, before pushing Daiki outside the house. Confused, he asked, “Are we not staying here for breakfast?”

“Hm?” Kagami was looking around, distracted. “Ah, we are, why?” Red eyes caught his, blinking, before they ripped themselves away completely and tugged at the hand Kagami had captured earlier. “We’re just heading around the place rather than walking through it. I haven’t been here too long, and it’s a bit confusing.”

Daiki laughed. “Shows what having a big place does to you!”

Kagami growled, bunching up his shoulders. They walked in silence for a few minutes, Daiki taking in the place, when he looked down suddenly as they continued to walk.

“Whoa!” he mumbled, catching Kagami’s attention. “Nightingale floors!”

Kagami came to an unintentional stop. “What?”

“You have nightingale floors!” Excited beyond his belief, Daiki walked around Kagami, pulling him along and then back the same length they just covered. The light melodious but slightly screechy noise that came with each step and shifting weight made Daiki’s face light up. “This is so cool! I’ve only seen it in the Nijō Castle!”

His excitement was thoroughly lost on Kagami, as he could see, when the redhead pulled at his arm and brought him to a halt. “I honestly don’t know what you are going on about,” Kagami said, and if he was not mistaken, a hint of a pout was forming on his lips. Daiki was almost distracted by it before he moved on the corridor again.

“You hear that sound?” he walked about again, making sure each deliberate step caused the noise he was enthused about to be heard by the frowning teenager. “That’s the nightingale floors. It has some hanging nails or something that rub against each other to make this noise.” Thick red eyebrows rose during the explanation and red eyes dropped to the floor. “Usually you’ll only find it in castles, but I guess since you said your grandmother is blind, this probably informs her about people walking about.”

Again, Kagami frowned. “Uh,” he scratched his neck, “I don’t know about that.” Not saying anything more, he reached for Daiki’s arm again and started to head in the direction they were earlier on. Daiki wondered what that vague feeling building in the pit of his gut was, but he had no time to concentrate on it and question its existence for soon, Kagami slowed to a halt, back facing him. “So…I hope…things turn out fine,” he mumbled, his free hand scratching at his neck. Daiki glanced at the action, appreciating the bare nape more than paying attention to what was being said, and found himself facing a long low table occupied mostly by people he has only seen in movies.

He did not have any motor control so the hand guiding him forcefully was a godsend; in his head, though, he was glaring accusingly at Kagami for being the vague imbecile that he was a few seconds ago.

“’Morning,” Kagami muttered on passing, gently but not so gently pushing Daiki into a sloppy _seiza_ before he sat carefully beside him. “This is Aomine Daiki, a friend from Tokyo.”

“Ah?” a mean looking bald man leaned across the table, and if it were not for the width of it, Daiki could imagine breathing arduously due to the fumes escaping a foul looking mouth. Even Kagami stiffened beside him. “Is this waka’s friend? Are ya tryin’ ta stiff him?”

“Stop it, Deguchi,” the kindly grandmother said from her seat up front. She had a benevolently sweet smile on a withered set of lips. In the bright morning light she looked even more fragile. “Dai-chan is such a nice boy.”

Deguchi looked like he swallowed a bucket of lemons, skin, seeds and all. Shifty, beady eyes darted from the side to Daiki, and without realising it, Daiki’s concerned frown deepened enough to make Deguchi cower in surprise.

Kagami made a weird motion beside him, and on turning to see his face (and maybe scowl at him), he caught the sight of another imposing male, only this time, he was older, mature and sitting at the head of the table. It did not help that he wore a casual brown and blue hakama, and the stare he was receiving was calculating.

The muscles on his neck froze; each crick and fibre was stuck and refused to move; even his heart remained silent without a thudding echo.

A lone shaking hand fisted around his knee.

“You fucker,” he managed to whisper despite the glare he was receiving from far across the table, “You did not tell me that your family was from the Yakuza.”

Kagami shifted. Then, “Eh, really? I thought you guessed from the size of the house. And grandfather keeps boasting about how big the branch was, when they were still part of the Yamaguchi-gumi.” He discreetly tried to jerk a thumb behind them at the open garden. “The boss apparently has a house across us.”

Daiki’s eyes widened. “You’re _neighbours_ with the biggest Yakuza in the world?!”

Kagami shrugged, settling his food before him. In the front, the apparent head of the household clapped his hands to say grace, and the rest followed, Daiki a step behind. Some eyes flickered towards him, but the glower on his face was still present, so they turned back to their food.

“Yea, I guess. Grandmother once took over the lead after her first husband was killed, and later she bowed down when she met my grandfather.” He gestured as politely as he could with his chopsticks (which was not so polite).

Daiki stared, agape. A hand shakily reached for the cup of steaming tea on his part of the table, trying to calmly take a few sips to distract himself from the absurdity of whatever was coming out of Kagami’s nonchalant mouth.

“She was their law advisor’s wife then.”

It seemed that Kagami could not get the look of disbelief on Daiki’s face, so him spewing out the tea was met with a raised eyebrow. Daiki looked on, incredulous. _He is so not giving me that look!!_

Down the table, the kindly (?) old woman chuckled melodiously at him.

 

* * *

 

**Author’s Note:** Er…so the chapter was a whooping 7K+ words, and I didn’t realise I was babbling too much for one, so I cut it short into three parts. Here’s part one of nonsense! (I’m sorry for those feeling slighted at the turn of events…)

Okay, so. The name of the group really does exist. A friend back in Japan had an aunt who lived in Kobe during the earthquake, and she had told everyone in the family (and those willing to listen) that the Yakuza provided relief for them. I checked it out—how crazy does it sound, right?—and Wikipedia did say the same. I’ll leave it in for now, but I’m not gonna concentrate much on it. This story, I have not forgotten, is mostly about Aomine and Kagami slowly realising they are in love with each other, and that distance is nothing to them. Peace out.

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews and comments are appreciated! :)


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